MOVIE REVIEW: New documentary chronicles the Boston Marathon

"Boston," directed by Jon Dunham and narrated by Matt Damon, is well-meaning and lovingly crafted, but it's flabby and jumbled.

By Al Alexander/For The Patriot Ledger

When I was 19, I weighed 230 pounds. My mother, like Mrs. Cartman, would say I was “just big boned,” But I was a walking chunk of flab. So I started running – every day. Seven years later, I ran my first marathon. Two years after that, in Lincoln, Neb., I qualified for the Boston Marathon with a time of 2 hours and 49 minutes, just below what was then the 2:50 cutoff for runners under age 32. I even made the front page of The Omaha World-Herald under the headline “Former Fat Guy Headed to Boston.” That was 1983, shortly before I came to Beantown to work at The Patriot Ledger. I even bettered my qualifying time that fall with a sub 2:48 in the now-defunct BostonFest Marathon.

What, you ask, does this have to do with anything? Well, I guess the point is that when race day arrived on April 16, 1984, my longtime dream fizzled. The morning broke rainy and cold. Plus, I had a painful stress fracture in my left shin. Hardly the utopia I expected. But I pushed on because I thought it would be my only chance to experience the pageantry and legend of the world’s greatest marathon: the start in Hopkinton; the thrill of chugging through beautiful downtown Ashland; the screaming college girls in Wellesley; the agony of Heartbreak Hill; and the unbelievable thrill of making that most famous left turn on to Boylston Street.

Yet, in the end, I was left disappointed with my time, 3:25, but even more with the event’s failure to fully live up to my extremely high expectations. I mention this because I had the exact same feeling watching “Boston,” a new documentary about our beloved marathon that will appear for one night only in theaters nationwide on Wednesday. Directed by Jon Dunham and narrated by Matt Damon, the film is well-meaning and lovingly crafted, but – like my former self – it’s flabby and jumbled. The stated goal is to recount the race’s rich history and most famous characters from Johnny Kelley to Bill Rodgers to Joan Benoit Samuelson.

They are all here to be sure, as is the infamous Rosie Ruiz. But the history part feels more like an afterthought, playing second fiddle to Dunham’s need to exploit the 2013 tragedy – and the following year’s “Boston Strong” comeback – as a recurring theme between trips back and forth aboard the Wayback Machine. The result is a movie that always feels rambling, disjointed, unfocused. It’s as if Dunham couldn’t make up is mind on what he wanted “Boston” to be.

One minute it’s a recounting of the awful events of April 15, 2013, some of it in graphic detail showing the bloodied victims from the two back-to-back explosions. The next, it’s about preparations for the 2014 race. At other times, it wanders off to Japan, Kenya and Australia to show us how past champions, all of them male, are promoting running as a means to achieving healthy bodies and confident minds.

Then it follows U.S. marathoner Shalane Flanagan as she trains for the 2014 race. Why she’s included is a mystery since she didn’t even finish in the top four that year.

The problem is that it all feels tacked on, as if Dunham was trying to pad for time. Even more frustrating is that it comes at the expense of the film’s most interesting aspect: the race’s glorious history.

The old photos, clips and remembrances are fascinating, especially how much the marathon has been a mirror on world history, like 1946 winner Stylianos Kyriakides running the race as a means to draw attention to the starving masses in his native Greece following World War II, or 1951 winner and Hiroshima survivor Shigeko Tanaka seeking to heal U.S.-Japanese relations, and Bobbie Gibb and Kathrine Switzer literally pushing their way into the competition at a time when women weren’t allowed to participate because men thought them too weak to run 26.2 miles.

Just as strong are the depressing images of the marathon on its deathbed in the mid-1980s, when the governing Boston Athletic Association refused to let money tarnish the race’s reputation as a pure, amateur event. Then came those unforgettable images in 1985 of defending champion Geoff Smith stopping several times due to recurring leg cramps – yet still winning by 5 minutes! That was the last straw, and in 1986, the John Hancock Insurance Co. (the underwriter of this film) took on sponsorship and restored the race to world-class status.

Dunham hits full stride when he sits down with legends like Bill Rodgers, Toshihiko Seko, Amby Burfoot and Olympic champion Frank Shorter. It’s a virtual jamboree for running geeks. Their observations and anecdotes are often funny and joyous, which makes it all the more depressing when Dunham shifts back to the horror of the 2013 race.

Why? Haven’t we already had enough of reliving that nightmare in feature films like “Patriot’s Day” and the upcoming “Stronger”? By now, it just feels exploitative – and redundant.

Still, those images and the interview with the grief-stricken father of 8-year-old Martin Richard, the bombing’s youngest victim, are no less heartbreaking. But when is enough enough?

An even bigger miscalculation is Dunham’s decision to build the film around preparation for the 2014 race, making “Boston” feel like it’s arriving two or three years too late.

And why concentrate almost exclusively on the elite runners? Isn’t the beauty of Boston the chance for the everyday people to challenge themselves and dream the impossible dream? It’s not like Dunham couldn’t find such people among that year’s field of 30,000 runners.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. I guess that’s the lament of every person who ever ran a marathon. And those people, like me, are going to be “Boston’s” staunchest critics. Yet there’s much here to be admired. But like my leg-breaking run back in 1984, “Boston” is not always pleasing, but when you finally cross the finish it’s hard not to pump your fist and smile. BOSTON A documentary by Jon Dunham and narrated by Matt Damon, featuring Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Kathrine Switzer, Amby Burfoot, Shalane Flanagan and John McGillivray. Grade: B-

Fathom Events will show the film for one night only, at 7:30 on Wednesday, April 19, at more than 500 theaters nationwide including Legacy Place in Dedham, Showcase Cinemas in Randolph, Patriot Place in Foxboro, Independence Mall in Kingston, AMC Braintree and Fenway Stadium 13 in Boston. Go to fathomevents.com for a full list of theaters.